By Chinelo Obogo, Lagos
Ground handling companies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to ensure that the upward review of charges by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) is not sabotaged by any party.
In a communiqué jointly signed by Olumuyiwa Olumekun, the Ag CEO, Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) Plc; Mr Basil Agboarumi, CEO, Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO) Plc; Mr Samuel Oluwole, Director Aviation Handling Service (AHS); Bello Salihu, CEO, Butake Resources Ltd (BRL); and Mr John Adebanjo, the CEO, Swissport Nigeria, it was agreed that the MoU will enable sustainable and profitable ground handling rates, while also maintaining the highest standards of safety operations in the sector in Nigeria.
Speaking on the new rates and their commencement, Chairman, AGHAN, Mr Olaniyi Adigun, said that the journey to achieving this feat was not easy, describing it as tough.
To prevent any sabotage, he said, the Association would come out with a watertight commitment that would stipulate the penalties if any member violates the agreement.
‘The first attempt was abortive because of the resistance of the strong and formidable airlines. This took us to the National Assembly where all was addressed. A one-way ticket to Abuja now is about N80,000, while we were handling them for between N10,000 and N20,000. Who does that? We needed to increase based on the economic realities on the ground.
‘Like I said, it will be termed as economic sabotage if anyone derails and the chairmen of these companies are the ones signing this communiqué, which will convey the commitment.
‘I don’t want to preempt what they will say, but there is going to be severe penalties not just to the ground handling companies, but also to the airlines that are out to sabotage the government. Such airline or handling company will have to pay compensation to the appropriate body,’ he said.
Another stakeholder, Bello Salihu, CEO, Butake Handling Company, also agreed that sanctions be applied to anyone who violates the agreement.
‘Sanction will be applied and NCAA will be involved in punishing any recalcitrant member of AGHAN that violates the agreement. Anyone that does it, we are going to report such to NCAA,’ he said.
While Ahmed Bashir, Vice Chairman AGHAN, said the agreement reached by all parties assures that the law would be applied if there was a violation.
‘We also agreed that we should send a communiqué, communicating the new discounted rates to the airlines. This new document was also signed by the CEOs of these five ground handling companies. That is the second documents in terms of our implementation. One, the resolution, two the communiqué and the third are that to ensure what we have is also tenable by law, the Chairmen of the handling companies will also have to sign the third document that will specify sanction and our legal departments are already working on it to fine-tune the document. Once they sign, the copies of the resolution, communiqué and the sanction we will make copies available to NCAA, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC). So, if there is any violator, these documents will be presented in the competent court of law. This is what we are doing to avoid any sabotage to ensure we get the cooperation of all,’ he said.
Mr Samuel Oluwole, Chairman, Precision Handling Company disclosed that a technical committee would be put in places like an inspectorate that would be able to monitor the handling companies in the country and severe fine be meted out by the disciplinary committee on the resolution and any infringement.
The NCAA recently approved new handling rates between $1,500 and $5,000 (passenger and cargo flights) for narrow and wide-body aircraft on international routes, respectively, while for domestic operators it was upped to N25,000 and N70,000, depending on the aircraft type
Narrow-body aircraft include Boeing B737, Airbus A320, ER 135 and ATR, while wide-body aircraft are B767, A330, B777, B747 and B787.
Domestic operation charges will come into effect March 1, 2022, while International and regional operations are effective January 1, 2022.
Before the current approval, the last time handling rates were reviewed in Nigeria was in 1986 and the international airlines were still paying as low as $400 to handle narrow-body aircraft, while they were charged between $1,000 and $1,200 for wide-body aircraft.